Much has happened with Palma Violets since they raged out at Shea Stadium over a month ago, this week’s release of their debut album, 180, not being the slightest. For a band that started playing together just a year and some months ago, they’re already living their own dreams. After I caught frontmen Sam Fryer and Chilli Jesson in the back room of Shea Stadium after that super sweaty show and then some after-sweaty show dancing, they told me about how the high train fare prices in London influenced their songwriting, their new album is nothing but hits, and why they only record in three takes.
Kelly Knapp: So tell me, when did you start making music as Palma Violets?
Sam Fryer: Palma Violets were September 2011…last year 2011.
KK: How did you all meet?
SF: Music festival just outside of London, called Reading Festival. I was playing guitar, and Chilli comes up to me and he says he wants to be my manager. He gave me his card.
KK: I heard some shit about Chilli, that he starts fights at shows.
Chilli Jesson: Me?? Do I?
SF: He’s a peaceful guy.
CJ: Yeah, I’m a peaceful guy.
KK: So no riots at your shows?
SF: We’re not that kind of clan.
KK: Who were you listening to growing up? Any artists that you saw and were like, I want to be like that?
SF & CJ: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is a big one for us.
CJ: The Clash, as well.
SF: Those are two big ones for us. When me and Chilli met, I didn’t know much about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at all, and me gave me all his Nick Cave records, and he didn’t know much about The Clash, so I gave him my Clash records. It was a bit of a trade, and yeah, now Nick Cave is my favorite and The Clash is his favorite band.
KK: So you guys have a debut album about to come out – when’s that out?
CJ: I think it’s out on the 25th of February.
KK: I was reading another interview when you were talking about the recording of the album and you were saying it was really boring.
SF: It’s not really boring; we just don’t really like being in there. We just don’t really find it that inspiring, in an actual recording studio playing songs over and over again is not really the place we want to be. We just like playing live, really. That’s the place we like to be. That’s where we get the buzz from, our kicks.
KK: What’s the recording process like? Do you try to record more as if you were playing live?
SF: Three takes. We play live in a room.
CJ: If it doesn’t work in three takes, it’s never gonna work.
SF: Then forget about it, yeah. We pick the best ones from three. We don’t like to fuck around.
KK: What are you guys thinking about when you’re on stage?
CJ: Drugs. No I’m joking! No, I think about the raise in train fares. In London, the train fares is so high I can’t even…that’s why we spent so much time at our base.
SF: I think that’s how we wrote all of our songs, because he couldn’t get anywhere.
KK: So you’re just thinking, “how am I going to get home?”
CJ: Yeah, so we have to stay. And then we ended up writing all these songs, because the train fares are so high.
KK: Do you guys write a lot when you’re out on the road, or do you save it for when you’re stuck at home because of train fares?
CJ: Sometimes. We write songs in loads of different ways.
KK: What are you guys most inspired by?
CJ: Lots of different things. Lambeth, the English countryside, New York.
SF: But it’s more like a kind of fantasy. We’ve never been to New York. Fantasy about America, even. Now we’re here.
KK: And it was a pretty crazy show tonight, too. There was a pretty decent mosh pit, I’ve already got some bruises…
CJ: Good! It’s the only way it’s a good show.
KK: What’s the best part about playing music for you guys?
SF: It’s all we ever wanted to do. We played shows for our friends in the beginning – that’s when we wrote all the songs. We just wanted to play in our basement to anyone who could come, and then things took off.
KK: Do you think it’s better to burn out than to fade away?
CJ: That’s a Neil Young lyric. The fact is, with that lyric, it’s obviously ironic. Because he’s burning out, isn’t he? I think he’s saying that as an ironic thing. So, I think we can be ironic. Obviously it’s better to burn out. Or is it better to fade away? Fuck, I just thought about that. It’s better to fade away, because we’ve got a song that fades out.
KK: What are you hoping to accomplish in 2013?
CJ: I’m trying to go and see as many people as I possibly can. Play these songs. I just want to play and see everything. In the world.
SF: Time to write some B-sides.
CJ: Because we’ve only written A-sides.
